ENTREVESTOR: SMU course reflects business culture

Halifax is gaining such a reputation for entrepreneurship that the buzz is helping Dawn Jutla attract mature students to the program she runs at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

Now in its second year, the master of technology, entrepreneurship and innovation program offers graduate students the chance to gain their master’s in just eight months of part-time study, followed by an eight-month work placement or work on their own startup.

The course offers eight short modules on vital subjects like marketing and finance to students who may already be tackling these issues in their lives.

“Most of our students want to start a business and many have already done so,” said Jutla, the program director and an award-winning researcher and professor in the fields of business and computer science.

“Some have developed their own technology and they’re looking to develop or commercialize it. They are studying and running their businesses simultaneously.”

Jutla said the program was created partly in response to the good things occurring locally.

“When we started creating this program in 2011, we were encouraged by things that were happening in Nova Scotia.

“These included the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture, and the $25-billion naval vessel building contract being awarded to Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax. Things got even better when the Atlantic provinces established Build Ventures, the regional venture capital fund.

“Today, the hub ecosystem in Nova Scotia keeps growing, with ever more groups, mentors and events for entrepreneurs. It helps us sell the program — people want to be part of that.”

Jutla said the program is receiving more applications, including from overseas students who make up a third of the intake.

Jutla was born in England but raised in Trinidad and can empathize with the experiences of many of her students. Halifax has been her home for 25 years, ever since she came to Nova Scotia to study as a 23-year-old graduate student.

She had already completed business and computer science courses as part of her natural sciences degree and was working in marketing in her home country when she made the decision that changed her life.

“My first winter here was hard,” she recalled with a laugh.

“Three years later, I was doing my PhD in computer science at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, when Saint Mary’s needed a person to teach an intro to computers in its business school.

“I had the right work experience and academic qualifications. Soon my foot was in the door.”

She joined the university full time five years later.

One of the things she most enjoys about academia is the opportunity to form teams with colleagues and students from around the world.

“This makes you feel like you are doing meaningful work that positively impacts societies.”

She has achieved a lot of success with her research into online privacy, and her PhD work on multi-view access control has been cited in patents. She also co-chairs an international technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.

“Without security and privacy, electronic commerce is at risk,” she said. “And without privacy, you don’t have democracy. There are huge social implications.”

Jutla said entrepreneurs in Halifax are fortunate in many ways, but she and the school’s career services are struggling to find work placements for her international students.

“We must work from many angles to create intern positions for international students. It would help if the provincial government extended their employer co-op subsidization programs to interns.

“It depresses me when we attract highly qualified people to Nova Scotia but then advise them to apply for jobs in Toronto or elsewhere.”